Khokho’s Suitcase

The age old African art of storytelling comes alive on stage with this original production of traditional African animal folklore tales. Through comedy, song, dance and drama these stories are made relevant to a contemporary audience as they bring their ‘lessons’ into a modern day context.

Our story begins with a family preparing for a feast. Khokho (great grandfather) is returning home after a long journey of collecting stories from around Africa and his granddaughter and great granddaughter are hard at work readying themselves for his arrival.

We join Khokho on the last leg of his journey and discover that a villain, who wishes to steal his suitcase of stories, is secretly pursuing him.

Along the way Khokho rests often, as he is tired from his long journey, and opens his suitcase to recount the many stories that he has gathered. These stories come to life using physical theatre and the creative use of props and costumes.

We are constantly aware of the villain in the background and are humored by Khokho’s ability to unwittingly ward him off.

The themes of the stories are linked to incidents that we see occurring back home between mother and daughter. They tackle issues such as respect, patience and greed.

Khokho’s final story is told after his well-celebrated arrival back home. He cleverly incorporates local townsfolk and his family to enact the story. Then much to the villain’s surprise Khokho involves him in the story and through this the villain learns about sharing and the power of storytelling.

Did you know that over the past decades man has done some terrible things to elephants? Is this a history we want our children to read about or do we want to show them some good news about our wild animals and diversity?

The Eden to Addo Corridor have to re-established the ancient elephant migration paths between the Garden Route National Park, The Baviaanskloof World Heritage Site and the Addo Elephant National Park and restore ecological balance of the region.  They commissioned The Great Eden to Addo Adventure to depict the story.  This  is perfect as an educational live theatre masterpiece as well as a great vehicle for fundraising drives.

The Great Eden to Addo Adventure follows a brave young girl who leads an escaped circus elephant on an epic adventure from Knysna to the Addo Elephant Park. En route they encounter a leopard, a sunbird, a dung beetle and a tortoise who each teach the travelers about the challenges they face. Together they find ways to work together to overcome these challenges.

This fun, entertaining and interactive show uses puppetry, mime, comedy, song and dance to convey its message and is followed by an interactive drama workshop for the whole audience.

This show uses the innovative Lunchbox Theatre style to highlight biodiversity and the need for humans, plants and animals to live in harmony.

Children who suffer at the hands of adults often have no idea that they have rights and what better way to teach them through a story?

Vulnerable children and good adults are mesmerized by this adventure. They become emotionally involved as they watch the ‘baddies’ denying basic rights to the children they have taken prisoner.  Being part of this highly interactive show, makes them feel:

• excited when Themba is told he must find his Inheritance,
• empathy when he is captured and used as a slave with other children,
• appalled by the greedy gluttons who scoff at the notion that everyone is equal in South Africa, even children,
• warmed by the loving guidance of the guardian angel,
• repulsed by the anti-heroes,
• shocked when Themba stands up for his rights and his fellow prisoners,
• angry when the bad guy tries to hurt Themba,
• protective of the children when they escape,
• and delighted when Themba triumphs and the rights of children which is their real inheritance are indelibly imprinted in their minds and emotions.

The children in the story triumph over the abusers in the end which gives them the courage they need to speak out.  The more children who can see this show the better.

iLifa was inspired by the 40th anniversary of the National Arts Festival and the 20th anniversary of our Democratic Constitution.

Moya is a young rising soccer star, his goal scoring record has made him a hero in his township. He has an asthma attack during training and ends up in hospital, where Moya has a nightmare about a Death Monster who feeds on smoke and pollution. Unable to play soccer, Moya is dropped from his team and loses the affections of his bling-bling girlfriend. Determined to find out the causes of his misfortune, Moya embarks on a journey of discovery into the causes of air pollution and the threat of climate change. He finds ways to heal himself and his environment and destroys the Death Monster.

Moya meets different characters who give him advice and information. He confronts industrial giants and meets the municipal air quality management team and finds out about local by-laws. With a new outlook on life he finds a new sustainable lifestyle.

Moya – The Air We Breathe is 45 minutes in duration and is suitable for Grades 8-12. An accompanying drama skills workshop of 45 minutes is also available. It was developed for a high school audience for the City of Cape Town’s Environmental Resource Management Department and was performed at 10 high schools for Air Quality Week in February 2008. Provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning commissioned a reduced version for their 2 Precious 2 Pollute Campaign in 2010.

Currently starring: Unathi Speelman, Nelson Chileshe Musonda, Mfundo Hashe and Ntombifuthi Mkhasibe.

Rubbish Wrap uses waste as a resource for the imagination. A talking tree’s leaves make homes for worms. A bottle top shark sings “Free the Sea!!” A magical musical recycling machine lets some surprises emerge at the other end.

Rubbish Wrap is a play about the creation and cycle of waste and the transfer of energy in nature’s own recycling system from one organism to another through the food chain. It contrasts the chain of consumption from raw materials to the dump sites of the industrialised world. The play enables learners to break the consumption and waste cycle through participation, fostering efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Rubbish Wrap is 45 minutes in duration and is suitable for Grades 4-9.

Jungle Theatre Company was commissioned by City of Cape Town Environmental Resource Management Department to create a short 20 min play to complement the waste chapter in The Smart Living Handbook in 2008. Rubbish Wrap was toured to schools as part of the Youth Environmental Schools’ (YES) Waste Wise Week in 2008 and 2009 and was accompanied by a 45 minute workshop. For the YES Blue Flag beach programme in March 2009, which focussed on marine and coastal pollution, the play and workshop were combined in a 45 minute interactive play and returned to the Blue Flag campaign in 2011.

Currently starring:

Unathi Speelman; Mfundo Hashe and Vincent Meyburgh.

Within every tree, every river and every creature on this Earth, each of our stories are infinitely told. They whisper our names in the wind and beg that we listen more closely to what we used to know but have recently forgotten. Directed by Kyla Davis. Designed by Godbish Bishedi. Featuring Mandla Moyo, Khutjo Green and Cebisa Fubesi. Winner of a 2014 Standard Bank Ovation Award.

Well Worn, Jungle and Seka Theatre Companies, 3 leaders in their field of ecological advocacy and social activism through theatre, collaborated for the first time across Southern Africa to bring you an outdoor African eco-play with sunset performances daily in the Rhodes Botanical Gardens at the 2014 National Arts Festival. The Baobab appeared as part of the Re-Imagining Programme at the Rhodes Environmental Learning Research Centre as well as on the ASSITEJ Family Fare platform at the 2014 National Arts Festival.

Sometimes, in war, famine and radical times of change, there is someone still standing. And sometimes, they are not alone. Amongst the dunes of post-2050 earth a mirage of humanity glimmers in the heat.

Directed by Helen Iskander (Nominated ABSA ‘Best Director 2009’ award at the KKNK, for The Famished Road). Designed by Jemma Kahn and performed by Kyla Davis (ImpACT award winner for Theatre 2010) and Mongi Mthombeni (NAF Golden Ovation Award Winners for The Butcher Brothers (2010) and Naledi Award winners for Best Cutting Edge production 2010) this collaboration of award-winning artists brings you an exquisitely visual new play of epic proportions.

Planet B was originally performed as part of the SA Devised Season at WITS Theatre in 2011 and subsequently went on to tour to the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown 2011 and the Out The Box Festival, Cape Town 2011 (where it received a special mention for Excellence at the Handspring Awards.) The play also formed part of the official cultural programme at the international COP17 conference on climate change in Durban (Dec 2011).

The Pollution Revolution is an original edutainment play that formed part of Well Worn’s pioneering Climate Change Action Programme, funded by the NLDTF and in partnership with Earthlife Africa JHB’s Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Project.

The play toured to 150 primary schools in Gauteng in 2010/2011 and performed to audiences of over 30 000 school learners and teachers. The play was also performed at the Family Festival of both the National Arts Festival and the Out of the Box Festival in 2011.

The 45 minute high energy, physical theatre play aligned to the Grade 4-9 Social Science, Life Orientation and Physical Science curriculums and covered themes of climate change, global warming, energy, water, waste, biodiversity and personal/social/ecological responsibility. Each school performance was accompanied by a ‘Climate Action Toolkit’: a learning resource researched, designed and compiled by the Well Worn Theatre Team. The resource included activities and learning materials to support teachers in carrying the learning over from Stage to Classroom.

The Pollution Revolution was written and directed by Kyla Davis and co-devised and performed by Craig Morris, Jaques De Silva, Joni Barnard, Jerry Mntonga, Taryn Bennett and Lerato Moloi.

American Fullbright scholar Amy Biehl is killed in the Gugulethu township of Cape Town: it’s a senseless murder, carried out by four youths. The mother of one of them tries to make sense of it all by recounting events in an imaginary conversation with Amy’s mother. It’s a real ‘heart to heart’ communication of personal testimony in an imaginary response to this real event, showing how one unforgiving moment in an ordinary day had repercussions beyond the imaginable. Mother to Mother tells a powerfully moving story of forgiveness, reconciliation and understanding across cultures and continents.

Performer: Thembi Mtshali-Jones

Workshops: There will be a talk-back with learners after the show for 20-30 minutes.